LETTER TO V. S. DOVGALEVSKY AND INSTRUCTION TO A SECRETARY

Published:Published in full in 1933 inLenin Miscellany XXIII.

      First published, but not in full, in 1932 inRadiofrontNo. 3.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1976],

      Moscow,Volume 35,

      pages519-520.Translated:Andrew RothsteinTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Tothe People’s Commissar for Posts and Telegraphs

Typedcopies to{{(1) addressee(2) me(3) N. P. Gorbunov

ComradeDovgalevsky,

Pleaselet me have information about the state of wireless
telephony in our country.

1)Isthe Central Moscow Station working? If so, how
many hours a day, and over what distance in versts?

Ifnot, what is lacking?

2)Arewe manufacturing (and how many?) receivers,
installations capable of voice reception from Moscow?

3)Howdo matters stand with loudspeakers,
installations which enable a whole hall (or square) to hear Moscow?

Iam very much afraid that this business has once again
“gone to sleep” (in the damnable manner of the
Russian
Oblomovs,[1]putting everyone and everything tosleep).

Ithas been “promised” many times, and all time limits
have long ago expired!

Theimportance of this affair for us (for propaganda in
the East especially) isexceptional. Delay and negligence
here are criminal.

Allthis already exists abroad; what is lacking can andmust be bought. In all probability, there is criminal
negligence somewhere.

V.Ulyanov(Lenin)Chairman, Council of People’s Commissars

September 2, 1921

[1]Oblomov—landowner in Goncharov’s novel of the same name,
personifying sluggishness, stagnation and inertia.